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Nuggets of Wisdom

Monday, July 21, 2014

Puppets Explain America’s Broken Prison System

America’s prison population has been rising within the past few decades despite its violent crime rates declining. So sky-high are incarcerations that a Sesame Street special has been released to help children cope with parents in prison. Taking a note from the place where the air is sweet, John Oliver on Last Week Tonight used puppets to help humorously explain America’s broken prison system:

It's a fact that needs to be spoken:
America's prisons are broken.
It's a hard truth about incarceration,
Prisons are needed for a civilization.

But mandatory minimums for heroin and crack
Stack the system against Hispanics and blacks.
Our prison population is bigger than Slovenia
Because we put people in jail instead of treating schizophrenia.

It's a fact that needs to be spoken:
America's prisons are broken.
Prison conditions are a national disgrace
With violence and maggots and possibly rape.

It's a fact that needs to be spoken:
America's prisons are broken.
America’s broken prison system are brought to you by decades of neglect, a lack of political courage, and a generous donation from the GEO Group as well as viewers like you.

There once was a time when I considered myself a “tough-on-crime” conservative, but after learning about our country’s high incarceration rates, countless incidents of police brutality, and the overall failure that is the War on Drugs, I have since made a complete 180 from such a stance.

You cannot claim to be against big "tyrannical" government while simultaneously supporting a government big enough to incarcerate half the population. Anyone self-respecting conservative or libertarian who claims to support limited government should oppose mandatory minimum sentencing, drug prohibition, private prisons, and other bad policies that create such gross high incarceration rates. Otherwise, you don’t oppose tyranny. You support it!